Reptile Crocodylus niloticus
Ancient, patient and enormous. The Grumeti River’s crocodiles wait all year for the migration to cross.
Nile crocodiles grow to five metres and can live for seventy years. The biggest ones in Tanzania live in the Grumeti River, where the wildebeest crossings in June and July provide a feast they wait months for.
In Ruaha the dry-season river shrinks to pools and the crocodiles share them with hippos. It is one of the most atmospheric sights in the park, especially at sunset.
Grumeti and Mara rivers in the Serengeti; the Great Ruaha River.
Guide’s tipA crocodile basking with its mouth open is cooling down, not threatening you. Still, we stay well back from the bank.
Sightings are never guaranteed: these are wild animals in wild places. What we can promise is a guide who knows where to look.
Destinations
The parks and reserves where our guides look for it, each with its own best season and safaris.
Africa’s largest lake, with papyrus specialists and lakeshore birds.
Quiet island park with forest birds, waterbirds and sitatunga.
Tree-climbing lions, groundwater forest and a soda lake full of waterbirds.
Vast plains, the Great Migration and big cats all year round.
Tanzania’s largest park: big predators, baobab plains and 570+ bird species.
Keep exploring
Loxodonta africana
Tarangire’s big herds are the classic sight: families drifting between baobabs to the river in the dry season.
Panthera leo
The Serengeti holds one of the largest lion populations left in Africa. Prides of twenty are not unusual.
Panthera pardus
Secretive and beautiful. The Seronera valley’s sausage trees are the best place in Africa to find one by day.
Acinonyx jubatus
Built for the short grass plains. Watch one scan from a termite mound in the southern Serengeti.
Diceros bicornis
Critically endangered and closely guarded. The Ngorongoro Crater is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see one.
Syncerus caffer
The Big Five’s heavyweight. Herds of several hundred are a daily sight in Arusha National Park and the crater.
Giraffa tippelskirchi
Tanzania’s national animal, with jagged star-shaped patches. Common almost everywhere except inside the crater.
Equus quagga
The migration’s other half. Hundreds of thousands of zebra move with the wildebeest across the Serengeti.
Tell us your dates and the birds or animals you most want to see. We’ll reply within 24 hours with a route and a full quote.
